MGM thinks on local partner for Japanese casino project

James Murren, chairman of US casino operator MGM Resorts International, was part of a presentation last week in Tokyo, Japan, where he indicated that any consortium the company might work with to build a gaming resort in that country was likely to be “led by a Japanese firm”.

terça-feira, 12 de setembro de 2017

Last week’s briefing at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Japan Conference also indicated that the opening date for an initial casino resort might be pushed out to the year 2025.

"We commit to being a good partner to Japanese companies in a Japanese-led IR [integrated resort] consortium,” stated Murren’s briefing, adding that local-government selection of business-operator partners was likely to be in 2018, with casino concession awards and
licence approvals from Japan’s national government likely in 2019.

Murren’s update twice used the phrase " Japanese-led consortium”. But the MGM Resorts presentation did not reveal whether the group might – under still to be clarified local rules – be required to take a minority rather than a majority stake.

During last week’s presentation Murren said that MGM Resorts had a "proven track record of being a trusted, dependable partner” in ventures with local partners, citing as one example the group’s Macau casino venture with Chinese businesswoman Pansy Ho Chiu King: initially a 50:50 arrangement and now 56-percent owned by MGM Resorts.

The briefing document also included previously-displayed artist renderings of resort concepts for, respectively, Tokyo,
Yokohama and Osaka. Those three cities were also mentioned by likely Japan bid rival Steve Wynn, chairman of Wynn Resorts, in an interview carried on in last week’s Nikkei Asian Review.

Japanese financial holding company Nomura said in a report issued in early August that a Japanese casino industry with "two major integrated resorts” could eventually generate gross gaming revenue of US$7 billion per year.